USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. VII > Part 16
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Sidney Roby Miner, son of Charles Ab- bott and Eliza Ross (Atherton) Miner, was born in Wilkes-Barre, July 28, 1864, died there June 14, 1913. He prepared at Harry Hillman Academy, whence he was graduated, class of 1884, then entered Harvard University in the fall, graduat-
ing Bachelor of Arts, class of 1888. Choosing the profession of law, he stud- ied in the University of Pennsylvania Law Department, 1889-1890, and on June 16, 1890, was admitted to the Luzerne county bar. He at once began practice in Wilkes-Barre and so continued until his death. He was a director of the Miner-Hillard Milling Company until his death, but his tastes were literary and professional.
Baptized January 3, 1869, and con- firmed March 30, 1890, in St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, by Right' Rev. Nelson S. Rulison, D. D., he became a member of the vestry in 1904, serving until his death, and for ten years he represented the parish in the conventions of the Dio- cese of Central Pennsylvania and the Dio- cese of Bethlehem, an earnest, devout churchman.
His fraternal and club associations were numerous. He was a Master Ma- son of Land Mark Lodge, No. 442, Free and Accepted Masons; a companion of Shekinah Chapter, No. 182, Royal Arch Masons; a sir knight of Dieu le Veut Commandery, Knights Templar; and a noble of Irem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His clubs were the Wyoming Valley Country, Westmoreland, North Mountain, and Harvard, of New York. He was also a member of the Pennsylvania Society, Sons of the Revolution, from 1893 until his death, holding membership through right of descent from Revolutionary an- cestors-Ensign Seth Miner, Sergeant William Searle, private James Atherton, private John Abbott, private Constant Searle, and private (later General) Wil- liam Ross.
His connection with the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society began with his admission as a member in 1892, and continued without interruption until
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his death. In 1894 he was elected record- ing secretary, and for nearly twenty years he held that office. He inherited the his- toric tastes and interests of his father, which led him at times to preserve for the Society the printed result of his re- search. His historical paper on Colonel Isaac Barre, published by the Society in Volume VI. of their Proceedings, is an exhaustive sketch of that distinguished officer and friend of the colonies. He also delivered an address before the Wyo- ming Commemorative Association (of which he was a member) on July 3, 1894, entitled "Who Was Queen Esther?" that was published by the Association. He was a life member of the Society, and after his death, having left a legacy of two thousand dollars to the Society, was placed on the list of benefactors.
Mr. Miner married, June 25, 1909, Lydia Atherton Stites, daughter of Rev. Winfield Scott and Lydia (Atherton) Stites, of Wyoming, Pennsylvania, who survives him.
The following beautiful tribute to Sid- ney R. Miner is from the pen of his friend and law partner, Colonel Franck C. Darte, and in it he most faithfully portrays the character of his dead friend :
Mr. Miner belonged to the conservatively minded, generously endowed, high-thinking men of the community. Never physically vigorous in a comparative sense, he was rather inclined to the quieter ways and the more studious walks of life, thongh, as opportunity presented, both in his own way, and in his attitude otherwise, he showed a large sympathy with those diver- sions which in one guise or another bring peo- ple into the free communion with nature in her visible forms. He was one of the charter mem- bers of the North Mountain Club, and it had been among his chiefest delights for years to enjoy the winter or the summer rambles in this mountain region where giant old trees, dash- ing brooks, and deep mountain chasms refreshed the spirit of the visitor.
Even before his college days, through his course at Harvard, and in after life, he has
shown delight in the reading of solid books, and his mind was familiar with and exulted sym- pathetically in the great thoughts of great men.
His friendships were wide in scope and they were rare in quality and this was very largely because he himself was a friend-constant, loyal and thoughtful. Many instances there are that it were possible to quote, that showed a keen sympathetic interest both in the joys and the sorrows of those he numbered as intimates and acquaintances. And this was always of comfort to those who had learned in many ways that his loyalty was a part of himself and always to be depended upon. He was one of those rare natures that added to friendships riches, and that never lost friends-for he had the enduring qualities that held them. This is not to say that he was without strong opinions. But he engaged in argument rather for the sake of the truth to be developed than for mere argument's sake, and he respected the views of others, even when holding fast his own.
The high intellectual appeal, the appeal of duty, of conscience, of the development of the wholesome and the uplifting in individual and in community-these were some of the indices of his character. He was a valuable member of several social, fraternal, and charitable organiza- tions and though his enthusiasm was of the quieter sort as far as outward signs go, it was enduring and constant. He had much to do with organizing the Harvard men of this vicin- ity, and more generally, in varied interests, his services found recognition in the many official parts he was called upon to play.
Moreover there was great wholesomeness and a fine fibre in his personal relations. He could be ranked as instinctively on the right, the high-minded side of a proposition, and this characteristic is perhaps growing a little more rare in an age when there are so many vagaries as to thought and action even among reasonable men. As indicated, he had come to large sym- pathy and to considerable participation in sev- eral of the important avenues of good in the community.
To these high qualities, as a citizen and a man, Mr. Miner added an integrity and sym- metry of character in his profession that was universally recognized. The thing never seemed, in choosing between the worthy and the oppo- site, to be a matter of turning aside temptation. With such as he there never seemed to be any temptation. What seemed to him right had become as facile as second nature.
In his death, which considering years and
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Benjamin Reynolds
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averages, is untimely and marked with some particularly sad features, the whole community will recognize the loss of a cultivated, loyal, high-minded citizen, lawyer, churchman, and friend. He had many of the most excellent traits of a distinguished ancestry, and there will be widespread regret that he could not have been spared for many years of illuminating per- sonal example, and of valued services in the many places that had known and profited by his interest, activity and companionship.
REYNOLDS, Benjamin, Financier, Man of Affairs.
Benjamin Reynolds came from a fam- ily distinguished in the annals of the Wyoming Valley. His father, Judge Wil- liam Champion Reynolds, was one of the strong public and business men of his day, and the father of four sons-Colonel George Murray Reynolds, Charles Den- nison Reynolds, Sheldon Reynolds and Benjamin Reynolds-all leaders and men of prominence.
Each generation of the family, from William Reynolds who came with his sons to the Valley in 1769, has furnished men of high standing and of value to their community. After peace came be- tween the warring factions and Penna- mite and Yankees began the work of re- building their devastated valley the Rey- nolds family at once became prominent in official and business life.
William Reynolds, from whom spring the Wyoming Valley family, was born in Kingston, Rhode Island, fourth in de- scent from William Reynolds, of Eng- land, who in 1629 settled in Salem, Massa- chusetts, after a short residence in Ber- muda. In 1637 he joined Roger Williams in Rhode Island, and became one of the founders of that colony. He was suc- ceeded by his son James, a landowner and constable of Kingston, who in turn was succeeded by his son James, who
married Mary Greene, daughter of James and Deliverance Potter Greene.
James Reynolds and Mary Greene were the parents of William Reynolds, the pio- neer ancestor of the Wyoming Valley family. William Reynolds married Deb- orah, daughter of Benjamin and Humility Coggeshall Greene, through whom de- scent is traced to John Greene and John Coggeshall, first Governor of Rhode Island, famous as builders of the Rhode Island Colony.
In 1769 William Reynolds moved to Pennsylvania, taking possession of lands allotted him under the Susquehanna Company, later acquiring much property by purchase. He resided in Plymouth until the battle of Wyoming, in which he took part with his son William, whose name is enrolled on Franklin's list of those slain in the massacre. William Reynolds died at Plymouth in 1792, aged nearly one hundred.
David, the second son of William and Deborah Greene Reynolds, was born in Rhode Island, June 17, 1734. He resided in Plymouth until obliged to flee from the Indians. He died at Plymouth, July 8, 1816. David Reynolds married (second) in 1779, Mrs. Hannah Andrus Gaylord, widow of Charles Gaylord, a Revolution- ary soldier.
Benjamin Reynolds, only child of David and Hannah Andrus Gaylord Reynolds, was born February 4, 1780, during the flight of his parents from Plymouth, and amid surroundings of the severest cold and storm. He was brought to Plymouth by his parents about 1785, and there re- sided until his death, February 22, 1854. He was engaged in mercantile business, served as sheriff by appointment, and for nearly fifty years held the office of justice of the peace. He was a member of the Masonic order, and a warm supporter of school and church. He married Lydia
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Fuller, second child of Joshua and Sybil Champion Fuller, of Mayflower descent, and through whom descent is also traced to Lieutenant Champion, of Connecticut. She died August 29, 1828.
William Champion Reynolds, eldest child of Benjamin Reynolds and Lydia Fuller Reynolds, was born in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, December 9, 1801 ; died at his residence on South River street, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, January 25, 1869. Educated at private schools, he was prepared to enter Princeton College, ill health, however, compelling the aban- donment of this course. At an early age he became a business partner of Hender- son Gaylord, a connection existing until 1835, when he engaged in business alone -mining and shipping coal. In 1836 and 1837 he served in the Pennsylvania Legis- lature, and advocated those means of in- ternal State improvement that have been so beneficial. On March 15 he was ap- pointed one of the Associate Judges of Luzerne county. He became president of the Lackawanna & Bloomsburg Railroad Company, now a part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad. He was director of the Wyoming National Bank, and one of the original members of the Wyoming Historical and Geolog- ical Society. Judge Reynolds married, June 19, 1832, Jane Holberton Smith, born at Plymouth, April 3, 1812, a daugh- ter of John and Frances Holberton Smith, of Revolutionary and Colonial descent. His father and his brother, Abiga, were the pioneer miners and shippers of an- thracite as early as 1808, when they shipped over two hundred tons from Plymouth to their factories in New York. John Smith was born in Derby, New Haven county, Connecticut, April 22, 1781 ; died May 7, 1852.
sylvania, the youngest child of Hon. Wil- liam Champion Reynolds and Jane Hol- berton Smith Reynolds. He received his education in private schools at Wilkes- Barre, to which place he moved with his family in his thirteenth year. Soon after his graduation from Princeton University in 1872 he entered the Peoples' Bank for the purpose of a course in business, re- maining there for two years, after which he became cashier of the Anthracite Bank. Mr. Reynolds brought new ideas and fresh energy to the bank ; was instru- mental in interesting other capitalists and was such a wholesome addition to its strength that in 1890 he was elected presi- dent. Under his wise, conservative yet progressive management, the bank won- derfully increased in usefulness and stand- ing showing enormous gains in every de- partment, and becoming one of the strong financial institutions of the State. In 1912 a merger was accomplished with the Miners' Savings Bank, the consolidating interests continuing as the Miners' Bank, with Mr. Reynolds as president and direc- tor until his death, April 4, 1913.
He had other important business inter- ests, and served as a director of the Haz- ard Manufacturing Company ; the Wilkes- Barre & Wyoming Valley Traction Com- pany, and the Hanover Fire Insurance Company, of New York, etc. He was a member of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society and of the Westmore- land Club. In political faith he was a Democrat and in religious belief a Pres- byterian.
At a special meeting of the board of directors of the Miners' Bank of Wilkes- Barre, held in the office of Conyngham & Company, in the bank building, April 7, 1913, with Directors Derr, McClintock, Ryman, Harvey and Conyngham present, Vice-President Derr presiding, the fol-
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Benjamin Reynolds was born on Christmas Day, 1849, in Kingston, Penn- lowing resolutions prepared by the spe-
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ADecatur Smith
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cial committee and presented by the chairman, Mr. McClintock, was adopted :
The death of our beloved President, Benja- min Reynolds, in the midst of the formative period of our history, when we are changing from two modest institutions into a strong, virile bank with broadened powers and wider scope and influence, comes with crushing weight upon us. He, more than any other member of this Board, was filled with the potent possibili- ties for our successful future and to his master- ful personality we looked for the full and effec- tive fruition of our plans. We still realize the courage and force he showed in his fight against weakness and lassitude, when instead of suc- cumbing to his failing physical powers his brave front and ready hand veiled our eyes and caused us to overlook what the cost in effort must have been to him. By his long and diligent training in his chosen work he had been well qualified for his task. No training, however, could sup- ply his natural gifts of honesty, strict upright- ness, sound judgment, fearlessness, singleness of purpose and persistent in his ideas of right and justice and with all of them his cheerful sunny nature and great personal charm making a rare union of happy qualities as fine and true as they are unusual. It is with heartfelt sorrow that we pay our tribute to his memory and ex- press our deep sense of personal loss to our institution and we tender to his stricken family our tenderest and sincerest sympathy in their hour of grief and pain.
Benjamin Reynolds married, Decem- ber 17, 1879, Grace Goodwin Fuller, daughter of Hon. Henry M. and Harriet Irwin Tharp Fuller, of Wayne county, Pennsylvania, who survives him, with one daughter, Edith Lindsley Reynolds.
Henry M. Fuller was a son of Amzi Fuller, a prominent lawyer of Wayne county, Pennsylvania, until 1841, when he moved to Wilkes-Barre, and was ad- mitted to the Luzerne county bar, Janu- ary II, 1822. He was born in Kent, Con- necticut, October 19, 1793, and died Sep- tember 26, 1847; son of Captain Revilo Fuller, fifth in descent of the Mayflower family of that name. Amzi Fuller mar- ried, February 10, 1818, Maria Mills, born
April 7, 1799, died August 24, 1885, a daughter of Colonel Philo and Rhoda Goodwin Mills, of Kent, Connecticut. Henry M. Fuller, born at Bethany, Wayne county, June 3, 1820, died in Phil- adelphia, December 26, 1860. He was graduated with highest honors from Princeton College, class of '38, at the age of eighteen years. He then pursued a course of legal study and was admitted to the Luzerne county bar January 3, 1842. He had a distinguished public career, beginning in 1842, when as a Whig he was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature. In 1849 he was the nomi- nee of the Whig party of the State for Canal Commissioner, and in 1850 was elected to Congress, and served in the thirty-second Congress. He was defeat- ed for reelection by Hendrick B. Wright, but in 1854 was elected to the Thirty- fourth Congress over this same opponent. In December, 1855, Henry M. Fuller was a candidate for Speaker of the House, put forward by the Whig and Know- Nothing party, he and Nathaniel P. Banks being the most prominent candi- dates. After two months of contest, dur- ing which one hundred and thirty-three ballots had been taken, Mr. Banks was declared elected. After the expiration of his congressional term in March, 1857, Mr. Fuller moved with his family to Phil- adelphia, and there resided until death. He was one of the most able men in the State, and won national reputation.
Mr. Fuller married Harriet Irwin Tharp, who died at Wilkes-Barre, July 18, 1890, daughter of Michael Rose and Jerusha Lindsley Tharp and the mother of two sons and five daughters.
SMITH, Stephen D., Musical Composer.
The life of Stephen Decatur Smith, de- voted for many years to business and to
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the advancement of art, came to a tragic ending when on the 19th of March, 1908, he passed away in the Jefferson Hospital as a result of injuries sustained on the evening of the 18th of February, when he was run over by a cab at Broad and Walnut streets, Philadelphia. He was then eighty-seven years of age. Of artis- tic nature and temperament, his life con- sisted of ennobling influence in its devo- tion to all that is refining and uplifting as opposed to the crude and coarse. For half a century he had been widely known as a composer of music, nor was his name an unfamiliar one in literary circles.
Mr. Smith was born in Philadelphia, April 5, 1820, and came of a family long distinguished in art and literary circles. His father, Francis Gurney Smith, was a writer of note, and belongs to one of the old Philadelphia families, as did his wife, who bore the maiden name of Eliza Mackey. He was one of the founders of the Musical Fund Society, his father was a friend of Commodore S. Decatur, in whose honor his son was named.
In the acquirement of his education, Stephen Decatur Smith attended the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated as a civil engineer. His first work in a professional capacity was with the Southern Railroad Company, and on the completion of the building of its line he continued with the company as a draftsman for a short period. He after- ward became connected with the glass and iron business, and remained in active association with the latter for many years, or until his retirement in 1905, during which period keen discernment, capable management and wisely directed industry brought him substantial success.
In other fields, Mr. Smith was even more widely known. His ability as a composer was recognized for half a cen- tury, and he was closely identified with
musical interests in Philadelphia. He was regarded as an authority upon ques- tions relating to music and musicians, and was a constant patron of concert and opera and an enthusiastic worker in all branches of musical activity. His com- positions displayed rare ability and wide range. His name was deeply engraved on the lives of those who had done much for the promotion of culture and talent in this city. He was a stockholder and one of the original subscribers to the Acad- emy of Music, a guarantor of the Phila- delphia Musical Festival Association and one of the originators of the old Abt Sing- ing Society. His fame as a composer spread abroad, and he gained distinction especially by setting poems and ballads to music. This was to him merely a recre- ation and matter of interest, for he never wrote for profit. Whenever he read a poem that appealed particularly to him, he arranged music for it, and, if his friends liked the arrangement, it was theirs for asking. He composed in all over eighty songs, all of high artistic order. One of the best known of his com- positions was the arrangement of Kings- bury's famous old ballad of "The Three Fishers." He simply signed his initials to the music, but nevertheless the song brought him much fame, for soon after it was published it was being sung all over the country. Another of his com- positions and a great favorite in Masonic circles is his arrangement of George H. Boker's "Lay Him Low," a song that is always used in Masonic lodges of sorrow, and frequently at military funerals. He was a close personal friend of Mr. Boker and other distinguished men of the times. Song after song came from his pen, but for none of these did he receive or accept remuneration. His compositions included a long list of war songs, among which were Tennyson's "Bugle Song," and
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A.D calin Smil go
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"Home They Brought Her Hero Dead." He composed music for "Why, Soldiers, Why," the words of which were written by General Wolf before the battle of Quebec, also for "The Peace of the Val- ley is Fled." In his musical writings alone he bequeathed to the world at large something which has distinct value and will to the end of time.
On the 25th of April, 1860, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Elizabeth Mayland Cuthbert, a daughter of Samuel and Anna (Mayland) Cuthbert, of Philadel- phia. They became the parents of two sons: Stephen Decatur, who was born September 28, 1861, and died December 17, 1909; and Percival, who was born July 5, 1864, and passed away February 23, 1872. The elder son was very promi- nent socially and was well known in the literary world as a reviewer of books. At one time he was on the literary staff of one of the country's best known maga- zines. He completed his literary educa- tion by graduation from the University of Pennsylvania with the class of 1884, and, like his distinguished father before him, he left an indelible impress upon literary circles. He married Florence Eustis, and to them were born two sons: S. Decatur Smith (3rd), died at the age of two years; Percival C. Smith; and a daughter, Florence Eustis, who died in infancy.
Stephen Decatur Smith died of pneu- monia at his apartments in the Ritten- house, December 17, 1909. Only about a year and a half before, his father had passed away at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. The family is noted for longevity, Stephen D. Smith, Sr., and all of his brothers living to celebrate their golden wedding. Both father and son oc- cupied a prominent place among the men of intelligence whose interests reached out broadly into the thought realm and found
pleasure in the solution of vital questions and problems as well as in the delicate imagery of the writer, musician and poet.
Mrs. Stephen D. Smith, who died De- cember 27, 1913, was the grandmother of Percival C. Smith, whose father's and grandfather's steel plates accompany this sketch. As further evidence of family longevity, it may be noted that Mrs. Ste- phen D. Smith, wife of Stephen D. Smith, Sr., died at the age of eighty-one years, while her mother lived until ninety-three years of age. Mr. Percival C. Smith is also a literary man, and promises to uphold the family traditions.
PARDEE, Ariovistus,
Founder of Pardee Scientific Department.
His ancestors settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and were mother and son refugees from France to England and thence to the New Haven Colony about 1648.
Ariovistus Pardee was of the seventh generation from George, the New Haven settler, and was born in the town of Chatham, Columbia county, New York, November 19, 1810, but his earliest recol- lections were of his father's farm in Ste- phentown, Rensselaer county, New York, a few miles north of New Lebanon Springs, where he led the usual life of a farmer's boy until his twentieth year. His education was limited to what he learned at his father's fireside and the ordinary district school, though fortunately he had for a time the advantage of an excellent teacher in the Rev. Moses Hunter, a Presbyterian clergyman, who to eke out a scanty salary taught a district school one or two winters. He was then fifteen years old, and this teaching about fin- ished his school education, though he was an industrious worker at his books in his leisure time at home.
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In June, 1830, he made application through his friend, Edwin A. Douglas, for a situation under him, and Canvass White, Esq., the chief engineer of the Canal Company, in the engineer corps of the Delaware and Raritan Canal in New Jersey, with good hopes of success, as Mr. Douglas was a townsman and had known him from a child ; but he was met with the, to him, disheartening news, that the company had decided to em- ploy none but Jersey men in the sub- ordinate positions. A day or two after he received another letter saying that if he came on at once he could have the position of rodman. Receiving the letter on Saturday, he left home before daylight on the Monday morning following, join- ing Mr. Douglas and his corps on the preliminary survey a few miles above Trenton. With him he remained until the canal was finally located, when he was stationed at Princeton, with George Tyler Olmstead, who had charge of the middle division of the canal. There he remained until the fall of 1831, when he was sent as sub-assistant to Ashbel Welch, Esq., at Lambertville, on the Del- aware and Raritan canal, remaining there until May, 1833, when he was sent, still under Mr. White and Mr. Douglas, to Beaver Meadow, Pennsylvania, to make the survey and location of the Beaver Meadow railroad from the mines of that company to the Lehigh canal at Mauch Chunk. After several changes in the engineer corps the entire charge of the road was given to him, and in the fall of 1836 it was finished and the shipment of coal commenced, when he resigned his position, and in the month of February, 1837, he took up his quarters at Hazleton, under the Hazleton Railroad & Coal Company, having previously located a railroad from the Hazleton coal mines to the Beaver Meadow railroad at Weather-
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